In Time
by ensiathe3rd
Summary: She was willing to give him a second chance, but she wasn't quite ready to forgive him.


**disclaimer; i do not own lab rats**

**AN; just something to tide you over until i can work out some kinks in Only Two. Ensia**

After the destruction of his lab and subsequent altercation with Krane, Douglas didn't have much to his name. For all the problems his lack of stuff had caused him the past couple of weeks, it certainly made moving in pretty quick and easy. Donald had shown him to his room in relative silence. After all, what was there to say after 15 years of silence between several nasty confrontations? Silence and estrangement was to be expected. Still, Douglas felt unnerved by it. Of everything he thought would occur in his life, his brother even considering forgiving him for what he had done and giving him another chance seemed too far from reality. He didn't know how to feel about it. Despite the fact that he would deny it, Douglas was happy that he had the chance to reconnect with his brother. He had never realized how much he missed Donny. The hate and bitterness still struggled within him, but it was drowning in the regret he felt for all the years he had missed.

His movements were robotic as he put what little he did have away in his room. The cold truth settled in his mind and not even his sweatshirt could stave off the chill. No matter what he did or how much he wanted to heal the wounds he had caused to his family, there were some wounds that just wouldn't heal. Douglas would have to live with that. He put away the last of his possessions and sat down on the bed. Douglas considered going downstairs, but didn't know what to expect. Donald seemed to only begrudgingly tolerating him being there, and the kids weren't much better. Whether or not they had noticed they had paired off. The entire time he had been there, he never had seen Leo without Bree or vice versa. Same with Adam and Chase. Though with Leo and Bree, he could imagine it not having to do with him so much as the fact that Bree's heart nearly exploded. Those kinds of things could traumatize a person. Still, he understood that he didn't have the best track record and some wariness at first was to be expected.

Someone knocked on his door. Before he could answer, the door opened anyway. His only daughter leaned against the doorframe as the door swung inward. Her arms were crossed over her chest and as far as Douglas knew, her expression was neutral. She was paler than Douglas had ever seen her and inwardly he wondered just how much her leaning on the wall was out of necessity to keep herself upright. Honestly, he was surprised she was conscious at all considering how much she was using her bionics yesterday. He tried to make it seem like it didn't bother him. "You know when you knock, you're supposed to wait for a response before coming in."

Bree shrugged, "I knocked because it's polite, but you'll find that in this house privacy is a nonfactor. I would have come in regardless of your response, so I figured I would just cut to the chase."

Douglas didn't know his daughter well enough to tell how she was feeling. If he had to guess, he would say she sounded bored. But something in his gut told him there was more to it. Still he tried not to make a big deal of it, Douglas smiled sarcastically at her, "Well in that case, welcome to my humble abode." He gestured to the room at large, "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

Bree stared at him, her brown eyes were cold and calculating, Douglas fidgeted under her gaze. Finally, Bree sighed and uncrossed her arms. She stepped into the room and closed the door behind her. Douglass watched how she moved, it was graceful and every move seemed to be preplanned. But he had watched her before enough to realize that her movements were slower than normal. He was confused as to what to make of it. Probably the events of the previous day were still haunting her more than he thought. Bree leaned back against the door and crossed her arms again. "I know for the foreseeable future the others will tiptoe around you, but I will make no secret of how I feel about you. I don't trust you."

"You seemed to be just fine trusting me yesterday." Douglas smirked at her, but he was legitimately curious as to what drove the girl to test out the chip he had made after everything he had done, especially considering how it ended up nearly killing her.

"I trusted Leo. For whatever reason, he trusts you. I don't understand why, I don't really care to. But I've made the mistake of not trusting Leo before and it almost cost me my family. I'm not eager to have a repeat of that." Bree's voice dropped with her gaze, the floor seemed to become more and more interesting to the teenager. She shook her head and cleared her throat, "But regardless of how I feel about you, I know the only way that we stand any chance against Krane is in numbers, and I know you know that. I don't trust you, but I _do_ trust your fear. Whether you stand by us because you want to make amends for everything you did and help stop the monster _you_ created or because you want to have security and save your own skin, I don't care _why_ just as long as you _do_. So for now, I'll let you stick around, but let me make myself perfectly clear." Bree looked him dead in the eye, and her voice was just above a whisper, "You do_ anything_ to endanger my family, my brothers, my father, my mother, and I will not hesitate to kill you." There was no emotion in her words.

Douglas stared at her, "That's a little dark for you. Aren't you supposed to be the hero?"

Bree looked away, shook her head, and scoffed, "A hero? Not lately." Bree looked torn between a desire to laugh and a need to cry. "But then again, that's never what you wanted from us anyway. Isn't it? You should be proud."

Douglas shifted under her gaze. He was never really good at emotions. A part of him wondered if she wanted him to say something in response to her comment. Nothing appropriate came to mind. He tried anyway, "Look, I know you may not be my biggest fan right now, but…"

"Save it." Douglas promptly shut up. "You kidnapped my dad, my brothers and me twice. Turned us evil, and had us attempt to kill our family," Bree was shaking, "had your little android try to kill Leo and Chase. You blew up our lab and bankrupted my dad. Plus, you created Krane, anything he does is on you." Bree took a deep breath and blinked multiple times. Douglas wasn't sure how to feel, he knew he probably deserved it but he wasn't up for his daughter to point out all of the things he had done wrong. Also, every time she referred to Donald as her father felt like a knife to the heart. He was about to tell her when she spoke again. "But you saved me and my brothers. That's not nothing." Her voice was gentler, "Plus no matter what I do, you are the man who created me. And I know that blood doesn't make a family," she seemed to be having more of an argument with herself than anything else. "I believe _everyone_ deserves a second chance. I _want_ to forgive you. And I just might," Bree shrugged, "in time." she amended.

Douglas nodded at her, he knew this wouldn't come easy, but his heart soared when he thought of a real relationship with his daughter, but he knew it never would be the kind he wanted. "Good to hear, kiddo." Somewhere in the deep recesses of his being, he ached to pull her into his arms, tell her he was sorry and promise that everything would work out in the end. Still something any normal father would do for his upset daughter felt light years away from where they were.

"You could have been my dad, you know." Her voice trembled, Bree bit her lip and closed her eyes for a moment, "But somewhere down the line you decided that money and power were more important than me and my brothers." She looked at the far wall, and hugged herself, "I'm not complaining about the alternative, I'm happy, I really am." She closed her eyes again, and bowed her head, her shoulders shook. "But it still hurts." She whispered. She looked him in the face, her eyes pleading, "And I…" She took a deep breath, "I don't know how to forgive you for that."

"You don't have to." And no matter how much it hurt, Douglas knew he could never ask her to.

She nodded and shifted on her feet, "Well, I'll leave you to it." Her voice cracked. She turned to the door and opened it a crack before leaning on the door handle. She was shaking violently, and her head was bowed. She spoke in a whisper. "Welcome to casa le Davenport." And with that she ran out, either as far away as possible from him or to one of her other family members, he wasn't sure.

Douglas stared after his daughter. Then the horrible truth hit him like a ton of bricks, she wasn't his daughter. The boys weren't his sons. They were Donald's. Douglas might have made them, but Donald made _them. _One more thing that Donald had taken from him. The most important, and Douglas had no one but himself to blame. But now that he was here with them, he could take the steps to healing this broken family. Maybe in time, he could be forgiven. Hopefully, he wasn't too late.


End file.
